If you’ve got hard water, scale can build up in the plumbing; your water pressure will seem to drop and your appliances will suffer. A water softener uses tiny resin beads to attract these minerals and remove them from the water as it enters your house.

If it’s just better drinking water you’re after, you don’t have to treat all the water that enters your home. Point-of-use filtration systems are generally pretty good at removing odors, bad tastes, bacteria and other things you’d rather not drink. They range in complexity from carbon filters in pitchers and icemakers to faucet-mount diverters. Or you might want a plumbed-in system that sends filtered water through an extra faucet next to the kitchen sink. Make sure the system you buy bears the mark of the national sanitation foundation, or NSF.

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